Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber was a comedicsketch on the American television show Saturday Night Live which first aired on April 22, 1978. The title character was a barber surgeon played by comedianSteve Martin, a frequent host of the show. The central gag revolved around Theodoric's belief in bloodletting as a solution to his patients' maladies. The character was brought back in a sequel, "Theodoric of York, Medieval Judge" on November 4 of the same year, in which Theodoric applied the same unenlightened methods to jurisprudence.
As an example of his method of procedure, in the initial sketch, Theodoric explained to the mother of a sick girl:
You know, medicine is not an exact science, but we are learning all the time. Why, just fifty years ago, they thought a disease like your daughter's was caused by demonic possession or witchcraft. But nowadays we know that Isabelle is suffering from an imbalance of bodily humors, perhaps caused by a toad or a small dwarf living in her stomach.
At the climax of both sketches, Theodoric would propose profound, innovative ideas that had the potential to change the course of history, but would ultimately dismiss them, as in:
Wait a minute. Perhaps she's right. Perhaps I've been wrong to blindly follow the medical traditions and superstitions of past centuries. Maybe we barbers should test these assumptions analytically, through experimentation and a "scientific method". Maybe this scientific method could be extended to other fields of learning: the natural sciences, art, architecture, navigation. Perhaps I could lead the way to a new age, an age of rebirth, a Renaissance!...Naaaaaahhh!
The second of the sketches, "Theodoric of York, Medieval Judge," lampooned both the medieval and modern judicial systems. In this skit, Martin's character would summarily pass judgment based on the outcomes of trials by ordeal, such as throwing a woman accused of witchcraft weighted into a river to see if she would drown: if the accused floated, she was determined to be guilty (because only by using her occult powers could she have risen to the surface), and if she sank and drowned, she was innocent. Upon deciding the accused was guilty, Theodoric would refer to the Writ of Common Wisdom (a huge, dusty tome) to decide appropriate punishment. In the case of a man found guilty of adultery (having previously been tried of stealing and lying), Theodoric finds the punishment in the Writ so embarrassing, he can't read it publicly, and instead whispers it in the defendant's ear.
On October 14, 1978, SCTV aired a skit called "Master Ralph Roister Doister" (named after (but not in any way based on) the actual 16th century play by Nicholas Udall) similarly satirizing the supposed ignorance and uncleanliness of medieval times. This focused on a poverty-stricken medieval couple (played by Dave Thomas and Catherine O'Hara with burlesque English accents) attempting to survive famine, plague, high taxes, and the harassment of the local sheriff (Joe Flaherty).
The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). The Medieval Inquisition was established in response to movements considered apostate or heretical to Roman Catholicism, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy. These were the first movements of many inquisitions that would follow.
A witch-hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. The classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America took place in the Early Modern period or about 1450 to 1750, spanning the upheavals of the Reformation and the Thirty Years' War, resulting in an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 executions. The last executions of people convicted as witches in Europe took place in the 18th century. In other regions, like Africa and Asia, contemporary witch-hunts have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa and Papua New Guinea, and official legislation against witchcraft is still found in Saudi Arabia and Cameroon today.
Jury nullification (US/UK), jury equity (UK), or a perverse verdict (UK) occurs when the jury in a criminal trial gives a not guilty verdict despite a defendant having clearly broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, that the punishment for breaking the law is too harsh, or general frustrations with the criminal justice system. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. Such verdicts are possible because a jury has an absolute right to return any verdict it chooses.
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom were executed by hanging. One other man, Giles Corey, was pressed to death after refusing to enter a plea, and at least five people died in jail.
Enid Strict, better known as The Church Lady, is a recurring character from a series of sketches on the American television show, Saturday Night Live, that appeared from 1986 to 1990, and again in 1996, 2000, 2011, and 2016. She also appeared on The Dana Carvey Show in March 1996, reading a Top Ten List, "New Titles for Princess Diana."
Pat O'Neill Riley is an androgynous fictional character created and performed by Julia Sweeney for the American sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1990–1994. The character was later featured in the film It's Pat. The central humorous aspect of sketches featuring Pat is the inability of others to determine the character's sex.
Capital punishment in traditional Jewish law has been defined in Codes of Jewish law dating back to medieval times, based on a system of oral laws contained in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, the primary source being the Hebrew Bible. In traditional Jewish law there are four types of capital punishment: a) stoning, b) burning by ingesting molten lead, c) strangling, and d) beheading, each being the punishment for specific offences. Except in special cases where a king can issue the death penalty, capital punishment in Jewish law cannot be decreed upon a person unless there were a minimum of twenty-three judges (Sanhedrin) adjudicating in that person's trial who, by a majority vote, gave the death sentence, and where there had been at least two competent witnesses who testified before the court that they had seen the litigant commit the offence. Even so, capital punishment does not begin in Jewish law until the court adjudicating in this case had issued the death sentence from a specific place on the Temple Mount in the city of Jerusalem.
Thomas James Davis was an American comedian, writer, and author. He is best known for his comedy partnership with Al Franken, as half of the comedy duo "Franken & Davis" on Saturday Night Live.
Dame Alice Kyteler was the first recorded person condemned for witchcraft in Ireland. She fled the country to either England or Flanders, and there is no record of her after her escape from persecution. Her servant Petronilla de Meath was flogged and burned to death at the stake on 3 November 1324, after being tortured and confessing to the heretical crimes she, Kyteler, and Kyteler's followers were alleged to have committed.
Capital punishment in Iceland was practiced until 1830. Although many were sentenced to death after 1830, their sentences were each commuted. Capital punishment was formally abolished in 1928.
Ashford v Thornton (1818) 106 ER 149 is an English criminal case in the Court of King's Bench which upheld the right of the defendant to trial by battle on a private appeal from an acquittal for murder.
Agnes Waterhouse, also known as Mother Waterhouse, was the one of the first women executed for witchcraft in England.
Wilkerson v. Utah, 99 U.S. 130 (1879), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court affirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah in stating that execution by firing squad, as prescribed by the Utah territorial statute, was not cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The trials of the Pendle witches in 1612 are among the most famous witch trials in English history, and some of the best recorded of the 17th century. The twelve accused lived in the area surrounding Pendle Hill in Lancashire, and were charged with the murders of ten people by the use of witchcraft. All but two were tried at Lancaster Assizes on 18–19 August 1612, along with the Samlesbury witches and others, in a series of trials that have become known as the Lancashire witch trials. One was tried at York Assizes on 27 July 1612, and another died in prison. Of the eleven who went to trial – nine women and two men – ten were found guilty and executed by hanging; one was found not guilty.
The Samlesbury witches were three women from the Lancashire village of Samlesbury – Jane Southworth, Jennet Bierley, and Ellen Bierley – accused by a 14-year-old girl, Grace Sowerbutts, of practising witchcraft. Their trial at Lancaster Assizes in England on 19 August 1612 was one in a series of witch trials held there over two days, among the most infamous in English history. The trials were unusual for England at that time in two respects: Thomas Potts, the clerk to the court, published the proceedings in his The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster; and the number of the accused found guilty and hanged was unusually high, ten at Lancaster and another at York. All three of the Samlesbury women were acquitted.
Throughout the era of the European witch trials in the Early Modern period, from the 15th to the 18th century, there were protests against both the belief in witches and the trials. Even those protestors who believed in witchcraft were typically sceptical about its actual occurrence.
The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced between September 24, 1977, and May 20, 1978, the third season of SNL.
During the Middle Ages, magic took on many forms, Instead of being able to identify one type of magic user, there were many who practiced several types of magic in these times, including monks, priests, physicians, surgeons, midwives, folk healers, and diviners. The practice of “magic” often consisted of using medicinal herbs for healing purposes. Classical medicine entailed magical elements. They would use charms or potions in hopes of driving out a sickness. People had strongly differing opinions as to what magic was, and because of this, it is important to understand all aspects of magic at this time.
Mary Lakeland also known as Mother Lakeland and the “Ipswich Witch”, was an English woman executed for witchcraft in Ipswich. She belonged to the few people in England to have been executed by burning after a conviction of witchcraft. She was the last person executed for witchcraft in the city of Ipswich.
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